In 1975, a watershed moment transformed Indian cinema forever. Sholay, widely regarded as Bollywood’s most iconic film, premiered on a Friday, as Indian films do. This, however, was not just any Friday—it was August 15, the anniversary of India’s independence from British rule in 1947. On the eve of independence, Jawaharlal Nehru, the country’s first prime minister, had delivered a famous speech heralding India’s “tryst with destiny.” Almost 30 years later, Sholay became Bollywood’s tryst with destiny; it held the box-office record as highest-grossing film for 19 years, ran for five years in a cinema hall in Bombay (now Mumbai), captured the public imagination as few Indian films have before or since, and is regarded as an evolutionary milestone in Hindi cinema.
At once a western, revenge thriller,
bandit drama, buddy film, comedy, and musical, Sholay is all
things to all fans. The plot follows Jai and Veeru, best friends and petty
criminals who are hired by former police officer Thakur Baldev Singh to capture
the dreaded bandit Gabbar Singh, who is terrorizing Thakur’s village, Ramgarh.
